Focal plane arrays (FPAs) are used in various applications to capture images for subsequent processing. For example, air-to-air missiles have employed infrared sensors with FPAs to capture infrared images of a target being tracked. The focal plane array contains n.times.n infrared detectors. Each detector has a slightly different sensitivity to infrared radiation. This non-uniform sensitivity yields fixed pattern noise (FPN). FPN manifest itself in the image resulting in some pixels which are too bright and some which are too dark.
Some missile sensor processors have employed algorithms to reduce FPN. Currently used algorithms have introduced significant scene artifacts in the output image which causes the missile tracker to mis-track the target. Efforts to reduce the scene artifact growth have resulted in insufficient fixed pattern noise reduction under certain simulated flight conditions.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide a technique for removal of fixed pattern noise from sensor images without introducing significant scene artifacts.